Introducing CawdNet - New visitors see "Welcome to CawdNet" - the first posting

CawdNet is:
- Active in Nigeria - at grassroots level
- Networking on the Internet – through volunteer support
- Enabling welfare and development initiatives – by working with others
- Creating "digital information paths ways" - where infrastructure is lacking

Sunday, August 01, 2004

CAWD: Charity for African Welfare and Development

CAWD registration and details for givingCAWD was formally registered as a charity in June 2004, registration number 1104228. Its bank details, for donations are: - Lloyds TSB - Friends of CAWD, A/C No: 10885960; Sort Code: 30-84-51. It is at possible to donate online at www.bmycharity.com/giving2cawd

The nameCAWD takes its name from the original “CAWD” which was the Committee for African Welfare and Development. CAWD. The committee was set up by the late Peter Adetunji Oyawale, a man with a vision for change in his homeland. He died in Nigeria in December 2000. He was buried in Ago-Are, Oke-Ogun, the place of his birth. Ago-Are is now the home of the first Oke-Ogun Community Development Network InfoCentre. Some of the services of the InfoCentre are sustainable, such as providing training. However some services are to do with Welfare and Development - work that will either never be sustainable, or needs some pump priming help to get it through the early stages. It is for things such as this that CAWD has been set up, and not just in Ago-Are, but in other locations too.

The needsCurrent needs include
- Set up costs for some small business initiatives to assist local economy
- Costs of sending CD-Roms to Nigeria from the UK for the Special Interest Groups
- Subsidies for print materials that the InfoCentre could print out from CD-Roms for the Special Interest Groups (such as health information).
- Costs of the weekly email exchange from Ago-Are via Saki (cyber café costs and transport)
- Salary and related expenses to keep David Mutua in the project after his time with VSO
- £1,400 to enable the Ago-Are InfoCentre to get online (see Newsletter 19)
- A digital camera for the InfoCentre so they can send photos as well as words, to show evidence of what they are doing
- A TV and video player, for community viewing – for public paid viewing of popular events, to earn money for the InfoCentre, and for showing educational videos.

Sunday, July 04, 2004

AD3 African Diaspora for Development Day

AD3 is an annual event,organised by AFFORD. Visit their website for details http://www.afford-uk.org/

People who know the history of CawdNet know that it began through the vision of the late Peter Adetunji Oyawale, a Nigerian who was living in the UK. When he died, in the early days of the project, the links with the Diaspora were broken. This year CawdNet took a stall at AD3 in the hope of recreating some of those links. Various information sheets were prepared for the great day.

These information sheets are posted on the blog:
- AD3 CawdNet Components
- AD3 CawdNet and You - How to develop your development interests
- AD3 - Buying into the Future
- AD3 - Cawd Volunteers - How you can get involved
- AD3 - CawdNet Enterprises - Investment opportunites to enable small and medium enterprises

CawdNet is uniquely placed to support the development of SMEs, Small and Medium Enterprises, in rural Nigeria. CawdNet is firmly based in rural communities in various states in Nigeria. It knows local people, situations and needs. It has extensive experience of capacity building through micro-credit and training. It has pioneered effective communication links. It has an extensive network of key people in the rural communities. These people are beyond the reach of the telecommunications infrastructure, so cannot be reached by phone, fax or email. Even the postal service is unreliable. Personal contacts are the key to effective communication in these areas, and CawdNet has the contacts. CawdNet is also active, through the Internet with “the connected community”.

This makes for a powerful network for setting up new enterprises.

CawdNet is looking at various business initiatives, which are a natural development of its present work. These can be considered under two broad headings, distributed and centralised.

Distributed

Distributed enterprises build on the micro credit work but take it a step further. Microcredit tends to be used for very small, one-person initiatives, like petty trading and soap making. CawdNet wants to move that up a stage. The distributed enterprises will be slightly ambitious, but building on CawdNet's established strengths and experience. CawdNet will provide a one-stop-shop and a sheltering umbrella for the set up and support of the small businesses.

The example of mini-solar production

Most of the people in rural Nigeria are served badly or not at all regarding mains electricity. As a result many of the devices that they use are battery driven, and recharging batteries is difficult, if not impossible. A workable solution is to re-charge using solar power.

In Kenya there is a small business, which assembles “mini-solar” devices. These devices enable people to use solar power to charge the batteries for their torches, radios, walkmen, phones and so on. The raw materials for the solar “panels” are off-cuts that might otherwise be wasted, so they are comparatively inexpensive. The end products are affordable and in demand. In the Kenyan example the assembly unit is at an orphanage, where it is successfully providing income.

CawdNet would like to set up a number of similar businesses scattered over the various states where it is active. CawdNet would provide the initial training, business plans, the loans necessary to get started, ongoing support, help with marketing as required, and a source of components needed in the assembly process.

Centralised

CawdNet is in a good position to learn about business initiatives, goods and services, that are working well elsewhere and adapt them to the needs of rural Nigerians. These will be ordinary centralised enterprises, and require little explanation here.

For example there is a successful business in South America, built on an imaginative approach to implementing domestic solar in an affordable way. The idea might transfer well to Nigeria, but first we need to do market research to compare the South American and Nigerian situation regarding present outgoings on candles and kerosene

CawdNet Enterprises offers unique opportunities for people wanting to invest in the future of rural Nigeia

AD3- Cawd Volunteers - How you can get involved

- Linking with representatives of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) through the weekly email exchange

- Doing research on the Internet to help inform the SIGs and the core members of CawdNet

- Sending information out to Nigeria – by making requests to information providers to send direct, or by burning information onto CD-Roms to send out.

- Raising the profile of CawdNet by writing about it, talking about it, attending events

- Helping with things that need doing – all sorts

To get involved

Get to know us and let us get to know you. We don't have "jobs". We do have lots of "work" that needs to be done. Together we will find something to fit your interests, skills and available time. There is so much to be done that you will gradually be able to create a role that really suits you.

Do as little or as much as you like – just as long as you do what you say you will do, in the time you said you would do it.

AD3 - Buying into the Future

Introduction
The idea of “Buying into the Future” came when CawdNet people were discussing the needs of the Education Special Interest Group (SIG), but we soon saw how it could apply to other SIGs.

The education example
Teachers are asking for in-service training (INSET) on ICT awareness. This is because ICT is coming onto the curriculum at primary, secondary and tertiary level. However, although there may be some provision in major urban areas, in the rural areas where CawdNet operates there is no INSET provision (and no provision for computers nor expectation of getting any, in fact most schools are book poor and have no electricity). Teachers are concerned that they are not prepared to teach this new curriculum area and are asking CawdNet associates to help them to “know computers”. The CawdNet associates in this case are Oke-Ogun Community Development Network (OCDN) and Fantsuam Foundation (FF).

Teachers are ready to study in their own time, and expect to pay for the training from their own pockets. The problem is that they have little disposable income. They typically have many financial responsibilities towards members of their extended families (who may well be subsistence farmers). This means it is difficult for them to pay realistic training fees. OCDN and FF are small organisations that need to cover their costs. The missing piece is a mechanism for paying, or subsidising, the teachers’ fees (inexpensive by “developed world” standard). This is where the idea of “Buying into the Future” comes in.

In the future these teachers should not need to pay for their own INSET. In the UK for example pioneering enthusiasts paid for their own training, but later ICT INSET was provided to teachers free of charge. What if our rural teachers could find themselves in a similar situation now? FF and OCDN would be able to provide the training. If we could “Buy into the Future” it would have the dual benefit of training the teachers and helping with the sustainability of FF and OCDN training services.

We can do two things to bring this positive future closer. For the medium and long term we can try to influence policy makers (state and federal government and international agencies) to enable free INSET. Meanwhile, on a local level we can try to provide the course fees, “as if” the government was already funding INSET – what we call “Buying into the Future”.

Raising funds for “Buying into the Future” initiatives will be done through CAWD

AD3 CawdNet and You - How to develop your development interests.

General interest in development?
Find out more about CawdNet

Time to spare?
Ask about Cawd Volunteers

Money to give or interested in fundraising?
Ask about CAWD
(Charity for African Welfare and Development)
See www.bmycharity.com/cawd for details of on-line giving. E-mail pam.mclean@ntlworld.com for fundraising suggestions.

Money to invest?
Ask about Cawd Enterprises.

Products or services to field test or showcase?
Ask about OCDN and Fantsuam

Special interest?
Ask about our special interest groups (SIGs).
SIGs are big or small, formal or informal.
New ones are on the way – so if you don’t see your interest please ask
We already have:
- Health
- Education and training
- Women
- Youth
- Farmers
- Sustainable energy
- Use of local languages
- Micro-credit
- Water and sanitation

Friday, June 25, 2004

The core of CawdNet - Meet the people at the centre of the network

This section introduces people at the core of CawdNet.
They are introduced in approximate "order of appearance" - i.e the order in which they got involved with CawdNet. People on this list are all in "direct" contact with Pam by email, although that may mean a considerable journey to the nearest cyber cafe.

Agnita Oyawale.
- Founder member, with her late husband Peter Adetunji Oyawale, of the organisation that started things off - "CAWD" - the Committee for African Welfare and Development. More details on www.cawd.info
- Chairman of Board of Trustees of the Charity that has evolved from the original CAWD. "CAWD" is now "Charity for African Welfare and Development" Registration number 1104228
- Lives in UK.

Pamela McLean
- Originally part of CAWD (the Committee)
- Convenor of CawdNet and first point of contact
- Brings people together who have shared interests
- Helps CawdNet activists to access information
- Raises profile of CawdNet on the Internet
- Knows Cawdnet core people well and is familiar with many of the locations in Nigeria
- A Cawd Volunteer
- Secretary of CAWD (the charity)
- Lives in UK.

Chief Gbade Adejumo
- Chairman and founder member of Oke-Ogun Community Development Network (ODCN – previously known as OOCD 2000+) More details on www.cawd.info
- Active in various other community groups including Rural Searchlight (RUSEL, a small micro-credit and training organisation in Oke-Ogun) For more details see the archives of the newsletter oocd2000plus. To subscribe visit http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/oocd2000plus
- Currently serving on the Civil Service Commission of Oyo State. The Commission is responsible for the appointment, promotion and discipline of civil servants in the state
- Lives in Okeho (Oke-Ogun), and Ibadan (state capital) – both in Oyo State.

David Mutua
- VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) volunteer 2002-2004
- As OCDN project manager – responsible for opening and managing the first OCDN InfoCentre in Ago-Are and for preparing set-up of Isseyin and Okeho InfoCentres
- Major responsibilities in VSO’s HIV/AIDS programme in SW Nigeria
- Following VSO, all being well, and after a holiday in Kenya, David will return to Nigeria as CawdNet’s first paid member of staff. His role will be:
- Supporting OCDN in its next stage of development
- Managing joint projects with other CawdNet members
- First point of contact for Nigerians and visitors from overseas.
- Home is in Kenya, in Nigeria he is based in Ago-Are and Ibadan.

Victoria Adetona
- Founder and director of Rural Searchlight (RUSEL, a micro-credit and training organisation in Oke-Ogun)
- International prize winner for women’s innovation: see oocd2000plus newsletter archives, to subscribe visit http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/oocd2000plus
- Particular interest in use of Yoruba
- Advising OCDN’s women’s group in Ago-Are on micro-credit
- Based in Isemi-Ile, Oke-Ogun

John Dada
- Director of Fantsuam Foundation (FF):
- FF was founded in 1996
- Active in Kaduna state and adjoining states
- Pioneering gender - and youth - focussed microfinance and ICT services in communities in rural Nigeria. See http://www.fantsuam.org
- FF has achieved international recognition for its pioneering work
- John is based in Kafanchan, Kaduna state

Mujidat Lawal and Tobi Ajayi
- Infomediaries linking Ago-Are to Cawd Volunteers
- Muji is employed at the InfoCentre
- Muji and Tobi prepare emails on behalf of the InfoCentre team and representatives of Special Interest Groups
- Tobi visits the cyber café in the neighbouring town of Saki once a week to send and receive emails
- Based in Ago-Are

Welcome to CawdNet - New visitors please come here first

CawdNet is:
- Active in Nigeria - at grassroots level.
- Networking on the Internet – through volunteer support.
- Enabling welfare and development initiatives – by working with others
- Creating "digital information footpaths” - where infrastructure is lacking

We seek contacts from anyone with an interest in development including
- Individuals, of any age, to join our volunteers or help with fundraising
- Projects seeking research or development partners.
- Donors large or small, for our charitable projects.
- Investors/business contacts for some of our sustainable projects.
- Innovators looking for field-testing or showcasing opportunities.
- Post-graduate students planning fieldwork
- People who simply want to learn more about the realities of rural Africa.
- Organisations who want to be more closely connected to the grassroots
Some background and some links
CawdNet takes its name from CAWD (The Committee for African Welfare and Development). The CAWD website gives the story up until Sept 2001 www.cawd.info

At first we were simply the OOCD team, but as the work grew, and there were more collaborations, and we were working with people outside of Oke-Ogun, we needed a group identity for collaborative ventures, hence CawdNet.

Welcome. If you have an interest in some aspect of development, and you think your interests overlap those of CawdNet, please contact me. I’m Pam and I help to bring people together, share information, and generally move things along. Email me at pam.mclean@ntlworld.com As the blog develops I hope you will be able to explore CawdNet in a variety of ways:
- Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
- Geographical locations
- Areas of concern
- Groups involved
- History
- Objectives
- MDGs (Millennium Development Goals)
- The team
- Friends of CawdNet
- ICT in development
If you have any questions please ask me and I will get appropriate information to you, and so, gradually, onto the blog.